The invention relates to a device for mounting a light unit on an automobile body. The housing of the light unit is either connected directly to the automobile body or by means of a support frame. The term "automobile body" as used herein is intended to encompass automobile body parts such as front or rear parts on which the light unit is to be mounted and which in turn is mounted on the automobile body. These automobile body parts may be of sheet metal, but the current trend is to make then in increasing numbers from plastic materials (for example "Soft-Nose"), so as to survive light accidents without permanent deformation.
Therefore, the mounting of head lamps on the automobile body was performed exclusively by means of screws with washers and nuts, as well as by means of spring yokes. In this fashion, a flexible mounting of the head lamp within defined limits is obtained, and, in particular, for dampening road shocks, which considerably shorten the life of the incandescent lamps. This type of mounting is relatively expensive, and, above all, the mounting cannot be performed fully automatically. The screws, washers and nuts are loose parts and accordingly there is considerable wastage and loss of such parts during the mounting procedure. Moreover, the ever present danger exists that wrong screws are used accidentally in view of the large number of different screws which are available and which are being used during the assembly of the motor vehicle. Needless to say, wrong screws may not be suitable for a safe mounting of the headlamps. In order to prevent these disadvantages, it has been proposed in DE-OS-No. 30 30 427 to mount a light device on the front part of the vehicle by means of a locking connection. However, in practice this proposal is not practical, since tolerances of a few mm occur during the automobile body assembly, which cannot be accommodated by such a locking connection. Moreover, the various deformations occuring in the automobile body during operation make such a locking connection problematic. Finally, a flexible mounting with such a connection is difficult to adjust.